Our Proven Approach To Incrementality Testing

‘Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.’ – John Wanamaker.  

Do you find yourself resonating and nodding in agreement with this quote?  

If so, you are among many marketers and brands around the world who struggle with this very notion. It is for this reason, Incrementality and Incrementality testing have come to the forefront of all marketing and campaign strategies for paid activity.  

Businesses want to know that there is value in their investment. Marketers want to know that there is value in their creatives or channels in use. Simply put, incrementality and incrementality testing facilitate a value-driven approach that is pivotal to the success of a campaign.  

Before we dive into how we can help get you set up for success, if you are new to the concept of Incrementality, or if you would like to brush up on the basics, we’ve got you covered. Our introductory blog on the subject, ‘The beginner’s guide to incrementality’, will bring you up to speed.  

Now, let’s dive into how we here at Kaden test for Incrementality.  

While incrementality testing allows for the A/B testing of multiple factors, such as: 

1. Ad Placement 

2. Ad Channel 

3. Ad Strategy 

4. Ad Creative 

5. Traffic Source 

6. Audience 

At Kaden, we test for the incremental lift in two prime approaches:  

1. Creative Route  

2. Environment Route  

Right off the bat, let’s clear up some confusion that may arise – do our two approaches mean our A/B testing abilities are limited? Not at all! Think of the multiple factors listed above as the wheels of the vehicle of Incrementality and our approach as the path that we take to get there.  

1. Creative Route: Creative testing is vital to the success of any campaign. Capturing consumers’ attention is key to converting them into a user or achieving a certain event. Our team tests all creative elements including but not limited to; image used, copy and call to action buttons across different languages. We test for Incremental lift using the client’s evergreen creatives as the control group while employing variations of the same to see if we can create a lift. Thus, we experiment, analyze, and optimize creatives to ensure our clients benefit from the performance and value we deliver.  

Testing creative iterations in different languages have also driven the lifetime value of consumers. For instance, running a Spanish version of a creative in high Spanish-speaking population locations in the USA has provided an uptick in results for certain advertisers. Kaden has a creative team that develops internal strategies across all unit types including; banners, native, videos, and playables at no cost. The insights gained based on the data gathered through A/B testing can be shared and can be applied to all partners clients work with. A deep dive presentation is provided so the learnings can help advertisers grow their brands.  

A/B testing combats stale creatives and is a cornerstone of our program. We’re able to identify what entices users to perform actions which is very powerful knowledge. Not only does Kaden offer the ability to test very granular concepts but also at scale. Our team brings together 15 languages from 3 continents. Understanding why creatives may not perform as well in the UK vs the US can help drive client product development to meet the needs of different behaviors that we see, driving the overall growth of the client’s app.  

We have a special method of creative testing both within a biased and non-biased environment. We use control groups so we gain an understanding of lift and provide feedback on what would work best, not only by geo, but by category, creative format, OS, OS version, device type, and time of day. 

2. Environment Route: In this approach, we leverage our wide network to test for an incremental lift in specific channels and audiences. To truly determine if a particular channel is delivering value for the campaign and client, we test RON (run of network) for our control group, while we use a targeted campaign (either WL, contextual campaigns, or custom segment) for our test group. As a rudimentary example, we would run a campaign for a sneaker as a banner ad on a sports or fitness page to see if that produces an incremental lift vs. Our RON tests.  

If you would like to know more about how we can help you drive value for your campaign through incrementality testing, or if you simply had a question that you would like to get answered, please drop us a note and we will be sure to get back to you at the earliest!